The photographic representation of female athletes in the British print media during the London 2012 Olympic Games

Abstract

The London 2012 Olympic Games were widely reported as the ‘Women's Games’ but was this reflected in the photographic representation in British print media? This study focused upon photographic representation of athletes in the British print media during the London 2012 Olympic Games. The original dimension of this investigation is the triangulation of gender with location, position and camera angle of photos. From a feminist perspective, content analysis was used to compare the amount and prominence of the coverage devoted to female and male athletes and photographs during the Games findings indicate that media coverage of female athletes continues to lag behind that of male athletes in quantity of photos. However, there are signs of increased gender equality in the location, page prominence and camera angle of photos of sportswomen compared to previous studies on the media representation of female athletes at Olympic Games.

Notes

^1.Wensing and Bruce, ‘Bending the Rules’; Jones, Murrell, and Jackson, ‘Pretty versus Powerful’; and Duncan, ‘Sports Photographs and Sexual Differences.’

^2.Pringle and Gordon, ‘Content Analysis of Western Australian’; Vincent et al., ‘Analysing the Print Media Coverage.’

^3.Hargreaves, Sporting Females.

^4.Coakley and Pike, Sports in Society.

^5.Kinnick, ‘Gender Bias in Newspaper Profiles.’

^6.Hardin et al., ‘Olympic Photo Coverage,’ 65.

^7.Cohen, ‘Media Portrayal of the Female Athlete.’

^8.Hardin et al., ‘Olympic Photo Coverage’; Higgs, Weiller, and Martin, ‘Gender Bias in the 1996 Olympic Games’; Crossman, Vincent, and Speed, ‘“Times They are a-Changin”’; and King, ‘Media Portrayals of Male.’

^9. See Eastman and Billings, ‘Gender Parity in the Olympics’; Lee, ‘Media Portrayals of Male and Female.’

^10.Duncan and Messner, ‘Gender Parity in the Olympics’; Pirinen, ‘Catching Up with Men?’

^11.Alexander, ‘Newspaper Coverage of Athletics’; Duncan and Messner, ‘Media Image of Sport’; and Jones, Murrell, and Jackson, ‘Prettys versus Powerful.’

^12.Vincent et al., ‘Newspaper Coverage of Female Athletes.’

^13.Vincent et al., ‘Comparison of Selected “Serious”.’

^14.King, ‘Media Portrayals of Male.’

^15.Crossman, Vincent, and Speed, ‘“Times They are a-Changin”,’ 38.

^16.Official Website of the Olympic Movement, ‘London 2012’; The Independent, ‘London 2012 Olympics.’

^17.Dixon, ‘Who Took that Photo?’

^18. See Rowe, Sport, Culture and Media; Crossman, Vincent, and Speed, ‘“Times They are a-Changin”’; Vincent et al., ‘Comparison of Selected “Serious”’; Hardin et al., ‘Olympic Photo Coverage’; and Mackay and Dallaire, ‘Campus Newspaper Coverage.’

^19.Bryman, Social Research Methods, 275.

^20.Crossman, Vincent, and Speed, ‘“Times They are a-Changin”.’

^21.Pederson, ‘Examining Equity’; Biscomb and Griggs, ‘“A Splendid Effort!”’; and Godoy-Pressland, ‘Weekend as a Male Entity.’

^22.PressGazette, ‘Sales of i Up 47 Per cent Year on Year.’

^23.National Readership Survey, ‘What We Do.’

^24.Sparks, ‘Readership of the British Quality Press.’

^25.Bishop, ‘Decline of National Newspapers’; Sparks, ‘Readership of the British Quality Press’; Franklin, Pulling Newspapers Apart; and Vincent et al., ‘Comparison of Selected “Serious”.’

^26. See Duncan and Messner, ‘Media Image of Sport and Gender’; Hardin et al., ‘Olympic Photo Coverage’; Vincent et al., ‘Comparison of Selected “Serious”’; Capricana et al., ‘Newspaper Coverage of Women's Sports’; and Mackay and Dallaire, ‘Campus Newspaper Coverage.’

^27.Franklin, Pulling Newspapers Apart.

^28.Choi, Femininity and the Physically Active Woman.

^29.Matteo, ‘Effect of Gender-Schematic Processing.’

^30.Pederson, ‘Examining Equity’; Crossman, Vincent, and Speed, ‘“Times They are a-Changin”.’

^31.Crossman, Vincent, and Speed, ‘“Times They are a-Changin”.’

^32.King, ‘Media Portrayals of Male.’

^33.Vincent et al., ‘A Comparison of Selected “Serious”.’

^34. Ibid.

^35.Lee, ‘Media Portrayals of Male and Female.’

^36.Bernstein, ‘Is It Time for a Victory Lap?’

^37.Andrews, ‘Reflections on Communication and Sport.’

^38.Bernstein, ‘Is It Time for a Victory Lap?’

^39.Lee, ‘Media Portrayals of Male and Female.’

^40.Boyle and Haynes, Power Play.

^41.Caudwell, ‘Women's Football in the United Kingdom’; Wright and Clarke, ‘Sport, the Media, and the Construction.’

^42.Bernstein, ‘Is It Time for a Victory Lap?’; Harris and Clayton, ‘Femininity, Masculinity, Physicality’; and Higgs, Weiller, and Martin, ‘Gender Bias in the 1996 Olympic Games.’

^43.King, ‘Media Portrayals of Male.’

^44.Boyle and Haynes, Power Play, 144.

^45.Lee, ‘Media Portrayals of Male and Female’; Alexander, ‘Newspaper Coverage’; Pringle and Gordon, ‘Content Analysis of Western Australian’; Pederson, ‘Examining Equity’; Vincent et al., ‘Comparison of Selected “Serious”’; Vincent, ‘Game, Sex, and Match’; and King, ‘Media Portrayals of Male.’

^46. Major sporting events are high-profile unique events with specific time frame and international significance (Carey, Mason, and Misener, ‘Social Responsibility and the Competitive Bid Process’) and thus investigations of the reporting of such events are not reflective of the day-to-day coverage between mega events. The result of 41.1% of female photos is thus specific to these particular events, rather than daily sports reporting.

^47.Weber and Carini, ‘Where are the Female Athletes.’